The summer school will give you both theoretical and hands-on training in bioanalytical and optofluidic applications, as well as in industrially relevant fabrication techniques for easier transfer of lab-on-chip systems (LOCs) to the market. At the same time, the PolyNano summer school will give you insight to the process of transforming scientific results into a commercially viable solution. The PolyNano summer school aims at building a common language between researchers with different backgrounds. For this reason, the school is open to students with either engineering and/or bio-chemical backgrounds. Within this framework, the school will provide you with tools to tackle the challenges of communication between different scientific disciplines in true cross-disciplinary research.

The school has three parallel experimental tracks: Electrochemical bioanalysis, optical trapping and DNA nanofluidics.

Learning objectives

If you have met the objectives of this course you will be able to:

Describe and analyse the needs for industrially relevant fabrication of polymer Lab-on-Chip systems from an industrial point of view

Prepare the chip for the bioanalytical, biomechanical and nanofluidic measurements in question

Make the relevant measurements on the chip

Evaluate and analyse the experimental results

Present the results and write a journal manuscript based on the experimental results

General informationThe summer school includes 3 scheduled course weeks at DTU Nanotech (August 13 - 31). The price (450 Euro) includes lunches, coffee breaks, and social events. Accommodations are not included in the prize. You earn 5 ECTS points

Tracks at the summer school:

Optical trapping: The technique of optical trapping has become widely used in biological physics, in questions where mechanical action of molecules or mechanical properties of cells are believed to be of biological importance. In the "optical trapping track" of the PolyNano summer school, students will get first-hand experience with optical trapping in a so-called "optical stretcher" configuration, embedded into a polymer microfluidic system

Electrochemical bioanalysis: Lab on a chip (LOC) devices have been widely employed for analysis of biomolecules in biological samples. Among the possible detection techniques, the significance of electrochemical applications has increased due to the inherent sensitivity as well as suitability for miniaturization and parallelization. In the “Electrochemical bioanalysis track” of the PolyNano Summer School, students will get hands-on training in preparation of LOC devices for electrochemical experiments and bioanalysis of, e.g., dopamine that has significance as both neurotransmitter and hormone. The practical work includes electrical and fluidic interfacing of LOC devices as well as chemical electrode modifications and their characterization using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. Bioanalysis using the prepared LOC devices as micro-flow-injection analyzers (µFIA) will be performed amperometrically.

DNA Nanofluidics: Nanofluidics enables studying single molecules. In particular, it is used for arraying and/or stretching single genomic DNA molecules so they can be imaged by fluorescence microscopy. In the “DNA nanofluidics track" of the PolyNano summer school, students will gain hands-on experience with running a nanofluidic device for arraying single molecules and thereby understand the basic concept of entropic trapping.

During the sign-up process you will be asked to rank these tracks according to interest.

DTU Nanotech

DTU Nanotech is the Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology at the Technical University of Denmark.

Within the field of micro- and nanotechnology, DTU Nanotech is committed to educating scientists and engineers, conducting research on an internationally competitive level, and transferring new technologies to the industry through joint programs.